The information in computers (and hence in networks of computers) is stored in the storage devices of the computers, in the form of hard disks, floppy disks, tape drives, USB drives and other such storage devices. The information is physically stored in digital form (for example, in hard disks, information is stored in different ‘clusters’ or areas of the devices), and cannot be seen by the user. To enable the user to retrieve information, the operating systems of computers use a method and system variously called a file management system or directory management system, which on the Microsoft Windows platform, for example, is called the Windows Explorer, and is known by various other names in various non-Microsoft systems, which we will hereinafter refer to as a “directory management system”.
The directory management system helps users organize their files into folders, which can be divided into sub-folders, and sub-sub-folders, up to several lower levels, and all these are contained in ‘partitions’ (also known as ‘directories’) of the computer hard disk (or other storage device), and a computer may have one or more hard disks or other storage devices. The directories are usually structured in hierarchical form, or in ‘tree’ structures.
The directory management structure enables users to perform various actions on the files that contain information or computer instructions—including: create, name, rename, open, copy, paste, move and delete, besides sorting the file and folder lists by different columns (e.g., alphabetically by file name, by last modification date, by file size, by file format) to make it easier to find a file or folder. The directory structure is replicated in ‘browse’ windows that open in individual applications on the computer (e.g., MS Word, or Adobe Photoshop) when a user wishes to locate a file to open or to save a file. The file lists in the directories may also show previews of images or the first slide of a presentation or animation in a ‘thumbnail’ size.
In systems implemented for faster retrieval of data the feature of tags are incorporated. The tagging of data is well known as can be depicted form the prior arts below.
One prior art describes how tagging operation are performed to provide faster access to data by associating tags with the data. A tag may be a keyword associated to data objects. These objects can be given multiple tags. A search for data objects can be performed by looking for all objects that are tagged accordingly. However, one drawback associated with the prior art is that the tagging operations work only if the file format is capable of carrying such tag node structures. Further, only applications that consider these tag node structures in files are capable of working with tags.
Another prior art which provides an improvement over the previous prior art describes file system tagging by applications wherein the application includes creating tag associations for the file system by associating a tag with a file object. Associating the tag with a file object also includes allocating a tag structure for each tag in the file system. However, the drawback associated with this prior art is that the allocation of tag structures for each tag will create additional storage requirement and thereby increasing hardware requirement.
Yet another prior art describes a method for retrieving documents based on information other than the document content. The prior art provides a search mechanism conducting search and providing results based on tags associated with the documents.
The limitations of the application of tags are not only confined to file systems but it is extended to email as well.
One prior art discloses system implementing association of tags with email and sharing the tags with a portion of email users. The prior art provides a solution for slow and ineffective method for handling received email due to increasing volume of emails received.
In a related aspect to email tagging, another relevant prior art describes a method of tagging emails and providing tag clouds. The prior art provides a method for generating tag clouds for emails and stored in a central location and accessible to a collaborative community.
Another prior art discloses a tag-sharing application wherein a mechanism is provided by which a user's tags can be shared across a variety of websites, applications or services, in addition to those websites where a particular tag may have been created.
However, a major drawback of the above prior art is that tags are created and used with no differentiation between tags based on data types or such other variables. Also, the drawback associated with all the above prior art related to tagging is that the retrieval of data relevant to a user is not authenticated by controlled access. As a result when a tag is shared with another user all the data appended with those tags would be exhibited to that other user regardless of whether all the data under same tag is relevant to the user or not.
Therefore, it is required to formulate a system and/or a method to obviate the shortcoming associated with the prior arts above.